Time Pygmy Wins Ludum Dare 19 Indie Game Challenge

Ludum Dare tasks indie developers and amateur creators to design, build and release a short game in a strict two-day time limit, and the game has to be about the current competition's theme. For the 19th jam, the keyword was "Discovery,” and 242 games were made.

You're given four minutes to make earth-shattering discoveries about modern-day objects and concepts, and bring as many of them as possible back to your prehistoric cave before the timer runs down. With any luck, you'll learn about TVs, computers, dictionaries, throwing rabbits in microwaves and freezing your lady friend in a block of ice.

Deepnight's Time Pygmy grabbed the award for overall best game, as well as prizes for being fun, sticking close to the theme, and being funny.

Another must-try game is increpare's Mother Robot, a smart little cave-exploring adventure, which won the innovation award. In the game, your robots can light up torches with their laser beams, to make glowing circles of light. But you'll have to work the robots in unison, leapfrogging each other to make sure your android explorers are always bathed in safe light.

Alongside simply making the game, developers are encouraged to document the process with blog entries, time-lapse creation videos and even releasing the game's source code. Creator _wdh won a medal for his extensive documentation on Ghosts and Gemstones; a cute little digging game that has you excavating an endless ocean of dirt and dragging gems away from the floating skull enemies.

If you'd like to try your hand at a future Ludum Dare competition, you can get in on the 20th jam, which will begin in April. You can either go solo and stick to the 48-hour limit for the main competition, or take part in the relaxed, 72-hour jam.